Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by John McTiernan, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and Kevin Peter Hall. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox. The story follows an elite special forces team, led by 'Dutch' (Arnold Schwarzenegger), on a mission to rescue hostages from guerrilla territory in Central America. Unbeknownst to the group, they are being hunted by a technologically advanced form of extraterrestrial life, the Predator. Predator was scripted by Jim and John Thomas in 1985, under the working title of Hunter. Filming began in April 1986 and creature effects were devised by Stan Winston.

The film's budget was around $15 million. Released in the United States on June 12, 1987, it grossed $98,267,558. Initial critical reaction to Predator was mixed, with criticism focusing on the thin plot. However, in subsequent years critics' attitudes toward the film warmed, and it has appeared on a number of "best of" lists. Two sequels, Predator 2 (1990) and Predators (2010), as well as two crossover films with the Alien franchise, Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007), have been produced.

Plot[link]

An alien spacecraft enters the Earth's atmosphere and jettisons a pod, which descends to Central America. Some time later, Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) arrives in Guatemala with his elite team for an operation to rescue a presidential cabinet minister and his aide who were abducted by guerrilla forces in Val Verde. Dutch's old military buddy, now working for the CIA, George Dillon (Carl Weathers), steps in as a liaison and joins the team: Mac Eliot (Bill Duke), Blain Cooper (Jesse Ventura), Billy Sole (Sonny Landham), Jorge "Poncho" Ramirez (Richard Chaves), and Rick Hawkins (Shane Black). The team is inserted into the jungle by helicopter and begins its hunt.

They soon find the wreckage of a downed helicopter, and later, the remains of several skinned bodies identified to be an Army Special Forces unit, whose presence in the country mystifies Dutch. They track the guerillas to a heavily defended rebel encampment which they destroy, except for a woman named Anna (Elpidia Carrillo) whom they take prisoner. Dutch is enraged when Dillon confesses the rescue mission had been a ploy to get his group to attack the camp and that the men they found earlier disappeared in the failed rescue of two CIA agents. As the team make their way to the extraction point, they are observed from afar by an unknown creature using thermal imaging.

Anna briefly escapes, but when Hawkins catches her, he is seized and dragged off. The nearly invisible creature spares the unarmed Anna. Moments later, while the team is looking for Hawkins' killer, Blain is killed. Mac physically sees the creature and opens fire on it, but it disappears into the jungle. Anna offers the team insight on the creature which is something of a local legend. The team sets a trap, but it avoids capture, severely wounding Poncho in the process. Mac and Dillon are killed in the ensuing chase, and Billy is slain making a stand. The Predator catches up to Dutch and engages in a short shootout during which Poncho is killed. Realizing the creature only attacks those possessing weapons, a wounded Dutch sends Anna unarmed to the extraction point. Jumping off a waterfall, he narrowly escapes the creature by inadvertently masking his body's heat signature with mud and witnesses the Predator's true form when its active camouflage fails in the water. Dutch applies more mud, improvises various weaponry and traps, then baits the Predator into coming out by starting a large fire.

Hearing Dutch's war-cry, the Predator arrives to investigate and eventually traps him. Discarding its electronic weaponry, the alien hulk challenges Dutch to hand-to-hand combat. Battered and barely able to move, Dutch manages to drop the counterweight from one of his traps, which falls and crushes the creature. As Dutch asks the mortally wounded alien what it is, the creature mimics his question in garbled English and then activates a self-destruct mechanism on its wrist device while laughing, gradually increasing its laugh into a human-like pitch. Dutch barely escapes the massive explosion and is later rescued by helicopter along with Anna.

Cast[link]

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer, a former Green Beret.
• Carl Weathers as George Dillon, a former teammate of Dutch and current CIA agent, sent along with Dutch's team.
• Elpidia Carrillo as Anna, a guerrilla, captured by Dutch's troops following a battle with the rebels.
• Bill Duke as Mac Eliot, a close friend of Blain's who served with him in Vietnam.
• Jesse Ventura as Blain Cooper, who fought alongside Mac in the Vietnam War. He often chews tobacco, and wears a battered old slouch hat. His weapon of choice is a modified M134 minigun he calls "Ol' Painless".
• Sonny Landham as Billy Sole, a Native American tracker.
• Richard Chaves as Jorge "Poncho" Ramirez, a Chicano fluent in Spanish who translates initially for Anna.
• Shane Black as Rick Hawkins, the team's radio operator and technical expert, known for reading comics and for having to explain the sexual jokes he tells.
• R. G. Armstrong as Major General Homer Phillips, the coordinator of the mission, who assigns the team based upon their reputation.
• Kevin Peter Hall as The Predator, a member of a warrior race which hunts aggressive members of other species for sport. It uses active camouflage, a plasma weapon and can see the infrared spectrum. He reprised the role in Predator 2. Hall also plays the end scene helicopter pilot. An uncredited Peter Cullen did the vocal effects.^[1]
• Sven-Ole Thorsen has an uncredited cameo as a Russian military advisor.

Production[link]

Development[link]

For a few months, following the release of Rocky IV, a joke was making rounds in Hollywood. Since Rocky Balboa had run out of earthly opponents, he would have to fight an alien if a fifth installment of his boxing series were to be made. Screenwriters Jim and John Thomas took the joke seriously and wrote a screenplay based on the joke. The Thomas script for Predator was originally titled Hunter.^[2] It was picked up by 20th Century Fox in 1985, and turned over to producer Joel Silver who, based on his experience with Commando, seemed the right choice to turn the vintage science fiction pulp storyline into a big-budget film. Silver enlisted his former boss Lawrence Gordon as co-producer and John McTiernan was hired as director for his first studio film. New Zealand director Geoff Murphy was also considered to direct.^[3]

According to the documentaries included on the Region 1 release of the special edition, the original monster suit was vastly different from the final product, designed by Stan Winston. Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally slated to play the creature, but allegedly made claims that the suit was "too clumsy and too hot". The original monster was a disproportionate, ungainly creature with large yellow eyes and a dog-like head. It was nowhere near as agile as the creature portrayed by Kevin Peter Hall. After Van Damme was removed from the film and subsequent financial troubles with the studio nearly caused the project to shut down, McTiernan consulted Stan Winston. While on a plane ride to Fox studios alongside Aliens director James Cameron, Winston sketched monster ideas. Cameron suggested he had always wanted to see a creature with mandibles, which became part of the Predator's iconic look.

Casting[link]

Silver and Gordon first approached Arnold Schwarzenegger with the lead role.

Schwarzenegger said, "The first thing I look for in a script is a good idea, a majority of scripts are rip-offs of other movies. People think they can become successful overnight. They sat down one weekend and wrote a script because they read that Stallone did that with Rocky. Predator was one of the scripts I read, and it bothered me in one way. It was just me and the alien. So we re-did the whole thing so that it was a team of commandos and then I liked the idea. I thought it would make a much more effective movie and be much more believable. I liked the idea of starting out with an action-adventure, but then coming in with some horror and science fiction."^{[citation needed]}

To play the elite band of mercenaries, both Silver and Gordon, with co-producer John Davis, searched for other larger-than-life men of action. Carl Weathers, who had been memorable as boxer Apollo Creed in the Rocky films was their first choice to play Dillon, while professional wrestler and former Navy UDT Jesse Ventura was hired for his formidable physique as Blain. Native Americans Sonny Landham and Richard Chaves, and African-American Bill Duke, who co-starred alongside Schwarzenegger in Commando, provided the ethnic balance. As a favor to the writer of Joel Silver's blockbuster Lethal Weapon, the studio hired screenplay writer Shane Black not only to play a supporting role in the film, but also to keep an eye on McTiernan due to the director's inexperience.^[2]

Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the Predator creature, the idea being that the physical action star would use his martial arts skills to make the Predator an agile, ninja-esque hunter.^[2] When compared to Schwarzenegger, Weathers, and Ventura, actors known for their bodybuilding regimens, it became apparent a more physically imposing man was needed to make the creature appear threatening. Additionally, it was reported that Van Damme constantly complained about the monster suit being too hot, causing him to pass out. He also had allegedly voiced his reservations on numerous occasions regarding the fact he would not be appearing on camera without the suit. Van Damme was removed from the film and replaced by Kevin Peter Hall.^[2] Hall, standing at an imposing 7 foot 2 (218 cm), had just finished work as a sasquatch in Harry and the Hendersons.^[4] Peter Cullen was invited by Fox to do creature vocals, and was initially reluctant since his throat was injured when he voiced King Kong for the 1976 film, but accepted the job after seeing the unmasked Predator. Cullen said his main inspiration were horseshoe crabs, which the Predator face reminded him of.^[1]

Filming[link]

Commitments by Schwarzenegger delayed the start of filming by several months. The delay gave Silver enough time to secure a minor rewrite from screenwriter David Peoples. Principal photography eventually began in the jungles of Palenque, Mexico, near Villahermosa, Tabasco, during the second week of April 1986, but the film overall was filmed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Much of the material dealing with the unit's deployment in the jungle was completed in a few short weeks and both Silver and Gordon were pleased by the dailies provided by McTiernan. On Friday, April 25, production halted so that Schwarzenegger could fly to Hyannis Port in a Lear jet chartered by Silver in order to get to his wedding on time. He was married on April 26, 1986, to Maria Shriver, and honeymooned for two weeks in Antigua, while the second unit completed additional lensing. The production resumed filming on May 12.

Both director McTiernan and Schwarzenegger lost 25 pounds during the film.^[2] Schwarzenegger's weight loss was a professional choice. McTiernan lost the weight because he avoided the food in Mexico due to health concerns.^[2] Unlike McTiernan, most of the cast and crew suffered of traveler's diarrhea since the Mexican hotel in which they were living was having problems with the water purification.^[5] In an interview, Carl Weathers said the actors would secretly wake up as early as 3:00 a.m. to work out before the day's shooting. Weathers also stated that he would act as if his physique was naturally given to him, and would work out only after the other actors were nowhere to be seen.^[2]

According to Schwarzenegger, filming was physically demanding as he had to swim in very cold water and spent three weeks covered in mud for the climactic battle with the alien.^[6] In addition, cast and crew endured very cold temperatures in the Mexican jungle that required heat lamps to be on all of the time. Cast and crew filmed on rough terrain that, according to the actor, was never flat, "always on a hill. We stood all day long on a hill, one leg down, one leg up. It was terrible."^[6] Schwarzenegger also faced the challenge of working with Kevin Peter Hall, who could not see in the Predator suit. The actor remembers, "so when he's supposed to slap me around and stay far from my face, all of a sudden, whap! There is this hand with claws on it!"^[6] Hall stated in an interview that his experience on the film, "wasn't a movie, it was a survival story for all of us."^[7] For example, in the scene where the Predator chases Dutch, the water was foul, stagnant and full of leeches.^[7] Hall could not see out of the mask and had to rehearse his scenes with it off and then memorize where everything was. The outfit was difficult to wear because it was heavy and off-balance.^[7]

Special effects[link]

R/Greenberg Associates created the film's optical effects, including the alien's ability to become invisible, its thermal vision point-of-view, its glowing blood, and the electrical spark effects.^[8] The invisibility effect was achieved by having someone in a bright red suit (because it was the farthest opposite of the green of the jungle and the blue of the sky) the size of the Predator. The red was removed with chroma key techniques, leaving an empty area. The take was then repeated without the actors using a 30% wider lens on the camera. When the two takes were combined optically, the jungle from the second take filled in the empty area. Because the second take was filmed with a wider lens, a vague outline of the alien could be seen with the background scenery bending around its shape.^[8] For the thermal vision, infrared film could not be used because it did not register in the range of body temperature wavelengths. The filmmakers used an inframetrics thermal video scanner as it gave good heat images of objects and people.^[8] The glowing blood was achieved by green liquid from glow sticks used by campers and mixed with personal lubricant for texture.^[8] The electrical sparks were rotoscoped animation using white paper pin registered on portable light tables to black-and-white prints of the film frames. The drawings were composited by the optical crew for the finished effects.^[8] Additional visual effects, mainly for the opening title sequence of the Predator arriving on Earth, were supplied by Dream Quest Images (later Oscar-winners for their work on The Abyss and Total Recall). The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects.^[9]

Music[link]

The soundtrack was composed by Alan Silvestri, who was coming off the huge success of Back to the Future in 1985. Predator was his first major action movie and the score is full of his now familiar genre characteristics: heavy horn blasts, staccato string rhythms, and undulating timpani rolls that highlight the action and suspense. Little Richard's song "Long Tall Sally" is featured in the helicopter en route to the jungle. Mac also recites a few lines from the song as he's chasing the Predator after it escapes from their booby trap. Silvestri returned for the sequel, making him the only composer to have scored more than one film in either the Alien or Predator series.

In 2003, Varèse Sarabande released the soundtrack album as part of its limited release CD Club collection; the album also includes the Elliot Goldenthal arrangement of the Fox fanfare used on Alien 3.

1. "Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare" (Alfred Newman - arrangement by Elliot Goldenthal 1992) (0:27)
2. "Main Title" (3:51)
3. "Something Else" (3:34)
4. "Cut ‘Em Down" (1:56)
5. "Payback Time" (2:09)
6. "The Truck" (4:22)
7. "Jungle Trek" (1:47)
8. "The Girl’s Escape" (6:00)
9. "Blaine’s Death" (2:47)
10. "He’s My Friend" (1:26)
11. "We’re All Gonna Die" (3:32)
12. "Building a Trap" (3:02)
13. "The Waiting" (3:27)
14. "The Hunt Is On" (4:51)
15. "Dillon Is Disarmed" (2:07)
16. "Billy Stands Alone" (2:34)
17. "Battle Plans" (9:24)
18. "Wounded Predator" (4:14)
19. "Hand to Hand Combat" (3:12)
20. "Predator’s Big Finish" (3:42)
21. "The Rescue and End Credits" (4:44)

In 2010, the same year Predators featured an adaptation of Silvestri's score by John Debney, Intrada Records released the album in a 3000-copy limited edition with remastered sound, many cues combined and renamed, and most notably (as with Intrada's release of Basil Poledouris's score for RoboCop) presenting the original end credits music as recorded (the film versions are differently mixed). This release is notable for having sold out within a day.^[10]

1. Fox Logo (Alfred Newman/Arranged by Elliot Goldenthal 1992) (:26)
2. Main Title (3:52)
3. Something Else; Cut ‘Em Down; Payback Time (7:37)
4. The Truck (4:23)
5. Jungle Trek (1:48)
6. Girl’s Escape; Blaine’s Death (6:40)
7. What Happened? (2:01)
8. He’s My Friend (1:26)
9. We’re Gonna Die (3:29)
10. Building The Trap (3:06)
11. The Waiting (3:27)
12. Can You See Him? (4:52)
13. Dillon’s Death (2:05)
14. Billy And Predator (2:32)
15. Dutch Builds Trap (9:28)
16. Predator Injured; Hand To Hand Combat (7:22)
17. Predator’s Death (3:43)
18. The Pick-Up And End Credits (5:58)

Reception[link]

Box office[link]

Released on June 12, 1987, Predator was #1 at the US box office in its opening weekend with a gross of $12 million, which was second to only Beverly Hills Cop II for the calendar year 1987.^[11] The film grossed $98,267,558, of which $59,735,548 was from the US & Canadian box office. $38,532,010 was made overseas.^[12]

Critical response[link]

Initial critical reaction to the Predator was generally negative, with some reviewers criticizing the thin plot. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film an average score of 36 based on 11 reviews from 1987, with the review opinions summarized as "generally unfavorable".^[13] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times described it as "grisly and dull, with few surprises."^[14] Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the film is "a rather pointless thing when you get down to it, [and] has little of the provocative intelligence that was found in [previous Schwarzenegger film] The Terminator. But at least it's self-propelling in terms of suspense and cheap thrills."^[15] Dean Lamanna wrote in Cinefantastique that "the militarized monster movie tires under its own derivative weight."^[16] Variety wrote that the film was a "slightly above-average actioner that tries to compensate for tissue-thin-plot with ever-more-grisly death sequences and impressive special effects."^[17] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times proclaimed it "arguably one of the emptiest, feeblest, most derivative scripts ever made as a major studio movie."^[18] Feminist Susan Faludi called it one of "an endless stream of war and action movies" in which "women are reduced to mute and incidental characters or banished altogether."^[19]

Roger Ebert was more complimentary of the film, saying "it supplies what it claims to supply: an effective action movie."^[20] He gave it 3 out of 4 stars and praised its pacing, location photography, strong but simple characterizations, and special effects.^[20] He particularly noted that the fast pace of the film keeps viewers from breaking their suspension of disbelief: "the action moves so quickly that we overlook questions such as (1) Why would an alien species go to all the effort to send a creature to Earth, just so that it could swing from trees and skin American soldiers? Or, (2) Why would a creature so technologically advanced need to bother with hand-to-hand combat, when it could just zap Arnold with a ray gun? ... None of these logical questions are very important to the movie."^[20] The film has been a perennial cable favorite outside of America, in India and other countries.^[21]

In subsequent years, Predator has appeared on a number of "best of" lists. In 2001, it was one of 400 films nominated for the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Thrills list, though it did not place in the top 100.^[22] In 2003, the Predator creature was one of 400 characters nominated for AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains.^[23] In 2007, C. Robert Cargill of Film.com ranked Predator as the seventh best film of 1987, calling it "one of the great science fiction horror films, often imitated, but never properly duplicated, not even by its own sequel."^[24] Entertainment Weekly named it the 22nd greatest action movie of all time in 2007, and the 14th among "The Best Rock-'em, Sock-'em Movies of the Past 25 Years" in 2009, saying "Arnold Schwarzenegger has never been as manly as he was in this alien-hunting testosterone-fest."^[25][26] In 2008, Empire magazine ranked it 336th on their list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.^[27] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 76% "Fresh" rating based on 37 critical reviews and reports a ratings average of 6.8 out of 10.^[28]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Predator (film)

• Predator at the Internet Movie Database
• Predator at AllRovi

Robert Rodriguez
Rodriguez at the 2007 Scream Awards, October 19, 2007
Born	Robert Anthony Rodriguez (1968-06-20) June 20, 1968 (age 44) San Antonio, Texas, United States
Occupation	film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer and musician
Notable work(s)	El Mariachi, Desperado, Spy Kids, Sin City, Grindhouse, Machete
Influenced by	John Carpenter, James Cameron, Roger Corman, Russ Meyer, Wes Craven, Sergio Leone, John McTiernan, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Frank Miller
Spouse	Elizabeth Avellán (1990–2006)
Partner	Rose McGowan (2007–09)
Website
Troublemaker Studios

Robert Anthony Rodríguez (born June 20, 1968)^[1] is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet Terror, and Machete. He is a friend and frequent collaborator of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

Early life[link]

Rodríguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Mexican-American parents Rebecca (née Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman.^[2][3] He began his interest in film at age 11 when his father bought one of the first VCRs, which came with a camera.

While attending St. Anthony High School, he was commissioned to videotape the school's football games. According to his sister he was fired soon after for shooting them with a cinematic style, getting shots of parents' reactions and the ball traveling through the air instead of shooting the whole play. There he met Carlos Gallardo; they both shot films on video throughout high school and college. After graduating Rodriguez went to the College of Communication at the University of Texas where he also developed a love of cartooning. His grades were not high enough to get into the school's film program, so he invented a daily comic strip entitled Los Hooligans with many of the characters based on his siblings – in particular, one of his sisters, Maricarmen. The comic proved to be quite successful, running for three years in the student newspaper The Daily Texan while Rodríguez continued to make short films.^{[citation needed]}

Rodríguez grew up shooting action and horror short films on video, and editing on two VCRs. Finally, in the fall of 1990, his entry in a local film contest earned him a spot in the university's film program where he made the award-winning 16 mm short "Bedhead". The film chronicles the amusing misadventures of a young girl whose older brother sports an incredibly tangled mess of hair that she cannot tolerate. Even at this early stage, Rodríguez's trademark style began to emerge: quick cuts, intense zooms, and fast camera movements deployed with a sense of humor that offsets the action.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Rodriguez at the premiere of Grindhouse, Austin, Texas

This short film attracted enough attention to encourage him to seriously attempt a career as a filmmaker. He went on to shoot the action flick El Mariachi in Spanish. El Mariachi, which was shot for around $7,000 with money raised by his friend Carlos Gallardo and participating in medical research studies, won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993. The film, originally intended for the Spanish-language low-budget home-video market, was "cleaned up" with several hundred thousand dollars before being distributed by Columbia Pictures in the United States, still being promoted as "the movie made for $7,000". Rodríguez described his experiences making the film in his book Rebel Without a Crew. The book and film inspired legions of hopeful filmmakers to pick up cameras and make no-budget movies. The film and the book are widely considered important touchstones of the independent film movement of the 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

Mainstream success[link]

His next feature film was Desperado, a sequel to El Mariachi starring Antonio Banderas. The film introduced Salma Hayek to American audiences. Rodríguez went on to collaborate with Quentin Tarantino on the vampire thriller, From Dusk Till Dawn (he co-produced two sequels), and with Kevin Williamson on the horror film The Faculty.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Rodríguez enjoyed his first $100,000,000 (USD) Hollywood hit with Spy Kids, which went on to become a movie franchise, with the third film released in a crude form of 3D. A third "mariachi" film also appeared in late 2003, Once Upon a Time in Mexico which completed the Mariachi Trilogy. He operates a production company called Troublemaker Studios, formerly Los Hooligans Productions.^{[citation needed]}

Rodríguez co-directed Sin City (2005), an adaptation of the Frank Miller Sin City comic books; Quentin Tarantino guest-directed a scene. During production in 2004, Rodríguez insisted that Miller direct the film with him because he considered the visual style of Miller's comic art to be just as important as his own in the film. However, the Directors Guild of America would not allow it, citing that only "legitimate teams" could share the director's credit (e.g. the Wachowski Brothers). Rodríguez chose to resign from the DGA, stating, "It was easier for me to quietly resign before shooting because otherwise I'd be forced to make compromises I was unwilling to make or set a precedent that might hurt the guild later on." By resigning from the DGA, Rodríguez was forced to relinquish his director's seat on the film John Carter of Mars (in development) for Paramount Pictures. Rodríguez had already signed on and had been announced as director of that film, planning to begin filming soon after completing Sin City.^{[citation needed]}

Sin City was a critical hit in 2005 as well as a box office success, particularly for a hyperviolent comic book adaptation that did not have name recognition comparable to the X-Men or Spider-Man. He has stated that he is interested in eventually adapting all of Miller's Sin City comic books.^{[citation needed]}

Rodríguez released The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 2005, a superhero-kid movie intended for the same younger audiences as his Spy Kids series. Shark Boy & Lava Girl was based on a story conceived by Rodríguez's 7 year-old son, Racer, who was given credit for the screenplay. The film was not a major success, having grossed 39 million dollars at the box office.^{[citation needed]}

Rodriguez wrote and directed the film Planet Terror for the collaboration with Quentin Tarantino in their double feature Grindhouse (released in 2007). This film was a throwback to the Grindhouse exploitation cinema of the past.^{[citation needed]}

He also has a series of "Ten Minute Film School" segments on several of his DVD releases, showing aspiring filmmakers how to make good, profitable movies using inexpensive tactics. Starting with the Once Upon a Time in Mexico DVD, Rodríguez began creating a series called, "Ten Minute Cooking School" where he revealed his recipe for "Puerco Pibil" (based on Cochinita pibil, an old dish from Yucatán), the same food Johnny Depp's character, "Agent Sands" ate in the film. The popularity of this series led to the inclusion of another "Cooking School" on the two-disc version of the "Sin City" DVD where Rodríguez teaches the viewer how to make "Sin City Breakfast Tacos," a dish (made for his cast and crew during late-night shoots and editing sessions) utilizing his grandmother's tortilla recipe and different egg mixes for the filling. He had initially planned to release a third "Cooking School" with the October 16 DVD release of "Planet Terror" but then announced on the "Film School" segment of the DVD that he would put it on the upcoming Grindhouse Theatrical DVD set instead. The Cooking School, titled "Texas Barbecue...from the GRAVE!," is a dish based on the "secret barbecue recipe" of "JT Hague," Jeff Fahey's character in the film.^[4]

Rodríguez is a strong supporter of digital film making, having been introduced to the practice by director George Lucas, who personally invited Rodríguez to use the digital cameras at Lucas' headquarters.^[5]

[edit] Predators

On April 23, 2009, it was announced that Rodriguez would produce a new Predator sequel, entitled Predators. This film's script was based on early drafts he had written after seeing the original. Rodriguez's ideas included a planet-sized game preserve and various creatures used by the Predators to hunt a group of abducted yet skilled humans. Opening to mixed reviews, the film fared reasonably well at the box office – forming speculation that a sequel may be in the works.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Machete

Machete is a feature film directed by Rodriguez and released in September 2010. It is an expansion of a fake trailer Rodriguez directed for the 2007 film Grindhouse. It starred Danny Trejo as the title character. Trejo, Rodriquez' 2nd cousin, has worked with him in some of his other movies such as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Spy Kids, where Trejo's character was also known as Machete. Although originally announced to be released direct-to-DVD as an extra on the Planet Terror DVD, the film was produced as a theatrical release.^[6]

According to Rodriguez, the origins of the film go back to Desperado. He says, "When I met Danny, I said, 'This guy should be like the Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme or Charles Bronson, putting out a movie every year and his name should be Machete.' So I decided to do that way back when, never got around to it until finally now. So now, of course, I want to keep going and do a feature."^[7] In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Rodriguez said that he wrote the screenplay back in 1993 when he cast Trejo in Desperado. "So I wrote him this idea of a federale from Mexico who gets hired to do hatchet jobs in the U.S. I had heard sometimes FBI or DEA have a really tough job that they don't want to get their own agents killed on, they'll hire an agent from Mexico to come do the job for $25,000. I thought, "That's Machete. He would come and do a really dangerous job for a lot of money to him but for everyone else over here it's peanuts." But I never got around to making it."^[8]

Rodriguez hoped to film Machete at the same time as Sin City 2.^[9] Additionally, during Comic-Con International 2008, he took the time to speak about Machete, including such topics as: status, possible sequels after the release of Machete, and production priorities.^[10] It was also revealed that he has regularly pulled sequences from it for his other productions including Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Machete was released in theaters September 3, 2010 in the U.S.A.

On May 5, 2010, Robert Rodriguez responded to Arizona's controversial immigration law by releasing an "illegal" trailer on Ain't It Cool News.^[11] The fake trailer combined elements of the Machete trailer that appeared in Grindhouse with footage from the actual film,^[12] and implied that the film would be about Machete leading a revolt against anti-immigration politicians and border vigilantes.^[12] Several movie websites, including Internet Movie Database, reported that it was the official teaser for the film.^[12] However, Rodriguez later revealed the trailer to be a joke, explaining "it was Cinco de Mayo and I had too much tequila."^[12]

Unproduced projects and upcoming films[link]

Since 1998, he has owned the film rights to Mike Allred's off-beat comic Madman. The two have hinted at the project being close to beginning on several occasions without anything coming of it. However, other projects have been completed first (Allred was instrumental in connecting Rodríguez with Frank Miller, leading to the production of Sin City). In 2004, Allred, while promoting his comic book, The Golden Plates, announced that a screenplay by George Huang was near completion. In March 2006, it was announced that production on Sin City 2 would be postponed. Allred announced at the 2006 WonderCon that production would likely commence on Madman the Movie in 2006. Huang is actually friends with Rodriguez, who advised him to pursue filmmaking as a career when Rodriguez landed a deal with Columbia Pictures where Huang was an employee.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2007 it was announced that Rodríguez had signed on to direct a remake of Barbarella for a 2008 release.^[13] At the 2007 Comic-Con convention, actress Rosario Dawson announced that because of Barbarella, production of Sin City 2 would be put on hold. She also announced that she would be playing an amazon in the Barbarella film.^[14]

In May 2008 Rodriguez is said to be shopping around a prison drama television series called Woman in Chains!, with Rose McGowan being a possibility for a lead role.^[15]

As of June 2008, plans to remake the film Barbarella with Rose McGowan as the lead have been delayed; the actress and director are instead remaking the film Red Sonja.^[16]

As of May 2009, Rodriguez plans to produce a live-action remake of Fire and Ice, a 1983 film collaboration between painter Frank Frazetta and animator Ralph Bakshi. The deal was closed shortly after Frazetta's death.^[12]

In 2011, Rodriguez announced at Comic-Con that he had purchased the film rights to Heavy Metal and planned to develop a new animated film at the new Quick Draw Studios.^[17]

Personal life[link]

Rodriguez announced in April 2006 that he and his wife Elizabeth Avellán, with whom he had five children, separated after 16 years of marriage.^[18]

He reportedly had a "dalliance"^[19] with actress Rose McGowan during the shooting of Grindhouse.^[20] In October 2007, Elle Magazine revealed that Rodríguez cast McGowan as the title role in his remake of Barbarella.^[21] After some reports of them breaking up^[22] and being together again,^[23] they split up in October 2009.^[24]

In October 2010, he walked Alexa Vega down the aisle at her wedding to producer Sean Covel.^{[citation needed]}

The "one-man film crew" and "Mariachi-style"[link]

Rodríguez not only has the unusual credits of producing, directing and writing his films, he also frequently serves as editor, director of photography, camera operator, steadicam operator, composer, production designer, visual effects supervisor, and sound editor on his films. This has earned him the nickname of "the one-man film crew." He abbreviates his numerous roles in his film credits; Once Upon A Time In Mexico, for instance, is "shot, chopped, and scored by Robert Rodriguez", and Sin City is "shot and cut by Robert Rodriguez."

He calls his style of making movies "Mariachi-style" (in reference to his first feature film El Mariachi) in which (according to the back cover of his book Rebel Without a Crew) "Creativity, not money, is used to solve problems." Stu Maschwitz coined the term "Robert Rodriguez list", i.e. you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list.^[25]

Filmography[link]

Collaborations[link]

Like most directors, Rodriguez has cast certain actors in more than one of his films.

The only actors that are not listed are ones who appear only in the Spy Kids franchise, and no other Rodriguez film. These actors include Alan Cumming, Mike Judge, Matt O'Leary, Emily Osment, Tony Shalhoub and Alexa Vega.

	El Mariachi	Roadracers	Desperado	Four Rooms	From Dusk till Dawn	The Faculty	Spy Kids	Spy Kids 2	Once Upon a Time in Mexico	Spy Kids 3	Sharkboy and Lavagirl	Sin City	Planet Terror	Shorts	Machete	Spy Kids 4	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Machete Kills
Jessica Alba												N			N	N	N
David Arquette		N									N
Electra and Elise Avellan													N		N
Antonio Banderas			N	N			N	N	N	N						N
Steve Buscemi			N					N		N
George Clooney					N		N			N
Rosario Dawson												N					N
Johnny Depp									N								N
Jeff Fahey													N		N
Carlos Gallardo1	N		N										N
Carla Gugino							N	N		N		N
Josh Hartnett						N						N
John Hawkes		N			N
Salma Hayek		N	N	N	N	N			N	N
Nicky Katt												N	N
Angela Lanza			N				N	N
Tito Larriva			N		N				N						N
Michael Madsen												N					N
Cheech Marin			N		N		N	N	N	N					N
Rose McGowan													N		N
Clive Owen												N					N
Robert Patrick						N	N
Michael Parks					N								N
Rebel Rodriguez											N		N	N
Mickey Rourke									N			N					N
Daryl Sabara							N	N		N					N	N
Tom Savini					N								N		N
Quentin Tarantino2			N	N	N								N
Danny Trejo			N		N		N	N	N	N					N	N		N
Patricia Vonne			N	N			N					N
Bruce Willis				N								N	N
Elijah Wood						N				N		N
	El Mariachi	Roadracers	Desperado	Four Rooms	From Dusk till Dawn	The Faculty	Spy Kids	Spy Kids 2	Once Upon a Time in Mexico	Spy Kids 3	Sharkboy and Lavagirl	Sin City	Planet Terror	Shorts	Machete	Spy Kids 4	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Machete Kills

¹ Gallardo also produced the Mariachi sequels.
² Tarantino has collaborated with Rodriguez in more ways than just as an actor.

See also[link]

	Book: Mexico Trilogy
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Chingon

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Rodriguez

• Robert Rodriguez at the Internet Movie Database
• Cinescape – Directors Who Matter
• Robert Rodriguez – The Independents
• Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino discuss their double feature, "Grindhouse" with Charlie Rose on April 5, 2007